Words by Andy Waterman
Photos by Max Igland
Anna Simonsson-Søndenå is a 21 year old Norwegian ultra runner who has been running long distances since her teens. She was born in Norway, and she’s lived in Sweden and across Europe, living the dirtbag runner lifestyle out of her van. She started working with Mount to Coast in the summer of 2024 when she ran the length of the Lofoten islands in the arctic circle for a film on slow tourism. “I didn’t know what I was getting into as I’d never run that far before, but I saw this as the best way to see Lofoten,” she says.
Anna has an interesting attitude and approach to the sport of ultrarunning and to life in general: she’s ambitious but she’s patient, she’s competitive but she really wants to share the experience of what it is to be an ultra runner.
So what’s the ultra scene like in Norway? “It is getting so popular here!” she says. “There’s not enough races.” Norway is a country where endurance is revered, and it’s a big part of the culture. “We socialize around training the way Italians socialize around food,” says Anna. “Otherwise we don’t hang out much. That’s the culture here and it’s the thing I really miss when I’m away – I love the social game around training, it’s super cool.”
That culture of training and sports led Anna to participating in orienteering in her teens and being accepted at a school that specialized in that sport. Orienteering isn’t a sport that is universally known, but in certain pockets of Europe, it’s a big deal: “For us it’s completely normal,” says Anna. “Orienteering is where you run and follow a map, and you have to take in checkpoints in a specific order along the way. And you’re going to run it as fast as possible.” In sparsely populated, heavily wooded Scandinavia, you can understand why this sport might be popular for kids, helping them to develop the map reading and navigation skills they need to experience the outdoors independently. “It can be really tricky and I was never super good, but I decided I wanted to go to Orienteringsgymnasium from 15 to 19, and I luckily got in. That wasn’t why I started running, but it was why I continued to have this mindset of competing,” she says. “It probably also saved me from not doing too many ultras when I was a kid.”
Anna started young with ultras. “Some friends were organizing this stuff and invited me to a backyard,” she says. “It kinda clicked and opened a new world for me – I didn’t even have the thought that you could run that far.” Anna was 15 when she ran that first backyard, and was broadly supported by the ultrarunning community: “I felt really welcome in the community. It was very supportive.” And although there was some pushback from people outside, Anna never let it get to her: “the body will stop when it’s too tired, anyway,” she says, “and there are a lot more unhealthy things you can do. I was never someone who went partying.”
The transition from the fast, competitive world of orienteering into ultra was relatively smooth for Anna, and the social side of the sport kept her engaged. “You talk a lot when you’re doing ultrarunning, because it’s so slow. Especially in a backyard ultra. So the community grows strong together. The ultrarunning community is the most wired-together community in running.”
It was only when she turned 18 that Anna had the chance to enter any ultra she wanted, and she ended up jumping straight into a 24, dropping out after 13 hours with sore feet and calves. Experience, and a switch to Mount to Coast shoes has eased that. The Lofoten run was her first significant distance in the R1, and it proved a valuable choice. “I was like ‘woah!’ – I’d never felt anything like it. It makes a significant difference later on in the run – after 50km you’re wondering, ‘why aren’t they getting worse like other shoes?’”
This summer Anna is hosting a training camp in Norway, continuing to make films (she recently ran 100km around the perimeter of Vatican City, with a film coming soon) and sharing her love for ultrarunning. “I have this long term goal that in 20 years, I want to stand on the start line of the World Championships and feel like ‘I’ve got this,’” she says. “And because ultrarunning is somewhere where you’re good when you’re 40 or 45, I have so much time to do that. Till then, I just want to have this more adventurous approach – I have small goals, but they’re not all results oriented. That’s the thing with ultrarunning – you have so many years.”
Ultrarunning is a sport of endurance, and knowing when to push and when to let the road rise up to meet you. For a young athlete, Anna’s holistic approach is remarkable in its maturity. We’re excited to see where her R1s take her next.
Discover more about Anna Simonsson-Søndenå by tuning into the full podcast.